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Wednesday, January 11, 2012

PaperGraphic - Natasha Molotkova

Because quilled lettering is such a frequent search term here at ATP, I'm pretty certain lots of you will enjoy seeing the perfectly executed designs of Natasha Molotkova.

While browsing Pinterest, my eyes were drawn to detailed paper typography ... Yulia Brodskaya's work, perhaps? No, it was an eye-catching piece created by Natasha.

Originally from the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, she was drawn to quilling after stumbling upon the art at university in England, (she's a recent graduate of a joint program of the University of Worcester and Worcester College of Technology) and remembers thinking how interesting it was.

I asked Natasha to tell us about herself and her interest in quilling.

"I studied fine arts in Russia and worked in the graphics department of a national newspaper. My degree program in England focused on fashion, textiles, and clothing construction, as well as a large element of general surface design. I was immediately taken by it (embroidery, felting, fabric printing, paper making, etc.) and especially surface design as applied to paper. I was curious if quilling could be combined with methods from traditional painting and drawing."

"I was inspired by the work of Yulia Brodskaya - isn't everybody? - and I practiced until I could produce work of a similar standard. I sketch the designs first, and then cut my own quilling strips and/or produce my own paper before applying these to the sketch. All of my quilling is done using a traditional approach."

Natasha has already put her education to use by forming her own company, PaperGraphic, which is based in Worcestershire. She provides original artwork, but is also adept at taking an existing concept - a company logo, for example - and using it to create a dimensional quilled or "PaperGraphic" display.